Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Sep 4;10(9):1696-702.
doi: 10.2215/CJN.01000115. Epub 2015 May 22.

Living-Donor Kidney Transplantation: Reducing Financial Barriers to Live Kidney Donation--Recommendations from a Consensus Conference

Lara Tushla  1 , Dianne LaPointe Rudow  2 , Jennifer Milton  3 , James R Rodrigue  4 , Jesse D Schold  5 , Rebecca Hays  6 ; American Society of Transplantation
Affiliations

Living-Donor Kidney Transplantation: Reducing Financial Barriers to Live Kidney Donation--Recommendations from a Consensus Conference

Lara Tushla et al. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. .

Abstract

Live-donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) is the best treatment for eligible people with late-stage kidney disease. Despite this, living kidney donation rates have declined in the United States in recent years. A potential source of this decline is the financial impact on potential and actual living kidney donors (LKDs). Recent evidence indicates that the economic climate may be associated with the decline in LDKT and that there are nontrivial financial ramifications for some LKDs. In June 2014, the American Society of Transplantation's Live Donor Community of Practice convened a Consensus Conference on Best Practices in Live Kidney Donation. The conference included transplant professionals, patients, and other key stakeholders (with the financial support of 10 other organizations) and sought to identify best practices, knowledge gaps, and opportunities pertaining to living kidney donation. This workgroup was tasked with exploring systemic and financial barriers to living kidney donation. The workgroup reviewed literature that assessed the financial effect of living kidney donation, analyzed employment and insurance factors, discussed international models for addressing direct and indirect costs faced by LKDs, and summarized current available resources. The workgroup developed the following series of recommendations to reduce financial and systemic barriers and achieve financial neutrality for LKDs: (1) allocate resources for standardized reimbursement of LKDs' lost wages and incidental costs; (2) pass legislation to offer employment and insurability protections to LKDs; (3) create an LKD financial toolkit to provide standardized, vetted education to donors and providers about options to maximize donor coverage and minimize financial effect within the current climate; and (4) promote further research to identify systemic barriers to living donation and LDKT to ensure the creation of mitigation strategies.

Keywords: economic impact; kidney donation; kidney transplantation; organ transplant.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients: (SRTR). OPTN/SRTR 2012 Annual Data Report, Rockville, MD, Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Healthcare Systems Bureau, Division of Transplantation, 2014
    1. United States Renal Data System: 2014 Annual Data Report: An Overview of the Epidemiology of Kidney Disease in the United States, Bethesda, MD, National Institute of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Diseases, 2014
    1. LaPointe Rudow D, Hays R, Baliga P, Cohen DJ, Cooper M, Danovitch GM, Dew MA, Gordon EJ, Mandelbrot DA, McGuire S, Milton J, Moore DR, Morgievich M, Schold JD, Segev DL, Serur D, Steiner RW, Tan JC, Waterman AD, Zavala EY, Rodrigue JRR: Consensus conference on best practices in live kidney donation: recommendations to optimize education, access, and care. Am J Transplant 15: 914–922, 2015 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dew MA, Jacobs CL: Psychosocial and socioeconomic issues facing the living kidney donor. Adv Chronic Kidney Dis 19: 237–243, 2012 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gill JS, Gill J, Barnieh L, Dong J, Rose C, Johnston O, Tonelli M, Klarenbach S: Income of living kidney donors and the income difference between living kidney donors and their recipients in the United States. Am J Transplant 12: 3111–3118, 2012 - PubMed

Publication types